England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Shenley St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Shenley lies in northern Buckinghamshire quite close to its border with neighbouring Northamptonshire. Shenley, whilst formerly a distinct separate village is now incorporated into Milton Keynes New Town and totally swamped by modern housing. Shenley village lay about 3 miles southeast of the former large village of Stony Stratford but is now part of western greater Milton Keynes. Prior to the development of the new town Shenley would have been largely an agricultural settlement engaged principally in arable crops. The village would have consisted of two distinct portions Brook End and Church End and it would have sat just west of the line of the A5 (London to the Midlands) road, the former Roman Road of Watling Street. Much of the drainage has been man-affected, either by the building of the new town or prior Victorian canalisation but a small tributary of the Great Ouse wound its way through the eastern portion of the parish before heading for The Wash. Shenley is sited at around 90 metres above the sea. Shenley parish was of a fairly typical size for a parish in North Buckinghamshire it would have covered around 2,500 acres and supported just under 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Brook End and Church End were sufficiently large to be separately recorded, Church End was held by one Earl Hugh of Chester and 13 ploughs as well as meadows and woodland, Brook End was shared between one Richard the artificer & Urso of Bercheres, it held just 4 ploughs, meadow & woodland.

The Church

St Mary's church is almost lost within the urban sprawl of Milton Keynes, it sits at the end of Dudley Hill, a small close of modern housing. The church is a very early foundation as revealed by its Norman influenced cruciform layout. Of the original building phase not much survives, the chancel (12th century) being especially praised by Pevsner is the church's highlight. Other portions also date from the 12th namely the southern arcade whereas its northern equivalent is 14th century and much else is fairly standard Perpendicular and marks a significant rebuild. St Mary's has a large parking area at the western end of Dudley Hill and a tarred path heads off to the building which is screened by a modern and not fully grown strip of trees. Once inside the graveyard, through a pair of wrought-iron gates, there are few obstructions to photography.